Egypt is famous for its ancient history and culture, but it is struggling with a particularly modern problem: plastic waste.
The country produces around 2.5 million metric tons of plastic waste each year and is responsible for more plastic discharged into the sea than any other nation in the Mediterranean region. Plastic bags are a major contributor, with an estimated 350 - 560 used per person each year, in different regions.
Egyptian designers Mariam Hazem and Hend Riad are on a mission to give discarded plastic a new lease of life. Their Cairo-based lifestyle brand Reform Studio transforms used plastic bags into furniture, clothes and handbags.
“We don’t treat waste as the end cycle of a material,” said Riad. “We see it as an opportunity. We see it as a new material.”
Reform Studio’s products are made with Plastex — a fabric the pair invented during their final year at the German University in Cairo — which is produced by cutting plastic into thread-like forms that are woven with cotton or other natural fibers.
